Free trade agreement jeopardises local workers

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At least 1000 workers may be jobless within months as two Sydney
car-part manufacturers plan to close, or move to Asia, as Australia
moves towards a free trade agreement with China.

The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union state secretary, Paul
Bastian, said cheaper labour in China and an expectation that a
trade agreement would be signed soon would cripple the
industry.

Thousands of jobs in the auto components industry would be lost
within a year, he said.

"The China free trade agreement, together with existing
competition from China, makes it impossible for the Australian auto
component industry to survive."

The first companies to signal their intention to leave Australia
or greatly cut operations were Tri Star Engineering, of
Marrickville, and and Spicer Axle Australia, of Yennora, Mr Bastian
said.

The general manager of Tri Star, Vincent Kong, and the managing
director of Spicer Axle, Bob Hall, could not be contacted by the
Herald.

Mr Bastian said Tri Star, which made steering and suspension
components, had started importing parts from India and was
negotiating to set up a plant in China after losing key contracts
for the Asian market.

Spicer Axle, which has plants making car differentials in
Victoria and South Australia, employs 500 people at its Sydney
plant, but had lost large contracts and was considering closing. Mr
Bastian said he understood that if Spicer was unsuccessful in
negotiations with Ford it would close.

"Ford is demanding cost reductions amounting to a 30 per cent
cost cut over the next three years," he said.

"In order to enable this to take place, the company has demanded
an immediate 15 per cent pay cut for all employees, with additional
use of contract and casual employment and the abolition of the
current redundancy agreement, with all new employees accepting a 20
per cent pay cut."

Mr Bastian said the Federal Government was not considering the
effect that a free trade agreement would have on workers' rights
and conditions.

"What employers are demanding is that workers adopt and compete
on Chinese wage conditions," he said.

"What the Federal Government should be doing is have an open and
transparent debate in Parliament about not just the economic
impacts but also the social costs and implications."

Ambegahewage Jayasingha, who has worked at Tri Star for 18
years, said at least 10 people had been made redundant in the past
few weeks and 270 would lose their job by next year.

Mr Jayasingha said Tri Star management told employees that it
would consider relocating its Marrickville plant to China and then
exporting its parts back.

"My personal opinion is that I would rather pay a few more
dollars for something Australian made than buy something from China
that will mean people have lost their jobs," Mr Jayasingha
said.

He said he did not know what he would do once he lost his job
because there were few manufacturing jobs in Australia.